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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

So today I'm delighted to take part in the Propheticus blog tour featuring an interview with the amazing Emma Daley, author of the sci-fi fantasy series Propheticus, a book review of the second book ( The Migliao ) and a GIVEAWAY! all here on Book-A-Holic, and so welcome to my stop!

But without further ado....

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1) Hi Emma! And welcome to Book-A-Holic. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hi Mariam, Thanks for having me. Let’s see, a little bit about myself…. I’m coming up on my 30th birthday, Yikes! I really cannot believe I’m that old, I still like make-believe and find it hard to take things seriously. I come from a large family and we are all very tight, 11 people—eight brothers and sisters. I have two dogs that are so funny that my Mom keeps telling me I should write a blog about them. I am a little camera shy, but catch me without a camera close and I can be the most social person you’ll meet—if I think you wont judge me all kinds of stuff comes out J. Was that a little bit or too much?

2) What inspired you to write the first book and how did the whole idea originated?

﻿﻿﻿Well, I had actually just read “The Vampire Diaries” and my friend was reading Twilight—we had just discovered that I had read the wrong books—she recommended Twilight and I was reading Vampire Diaries. We were trying to compare notes and it just wasn’t working. I was pretty inspired by “The Vampire Diaries”, the way I get inspired by any new concept or story—since I thought that the series had invented the Vampire romance concept. At that point in my life I was literally from another world. I was living in Alaska and when I went to bed, after being pumped full with paranormal romance, I had this strange dream. I can’t tell you how I dreamt what I dreamt cause it was so different, but I am no stranger to odd dreams, it was kind of my signature. I started writing Propheticus months later when I had a lot of time on my hands; we were no longer in Alaska and honestly I never thought I could write a whole book.

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﻿3) If Propheticus was turned into a movie, who could you see playing the lead roles?

Natalie Portman

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿I struggle with this all the time but I really love Natalie Portman for Aniah, although my husband thinks Kirsten Stewart would be great for the part and another candidate I have looked at is Jennifer Carpenter; I’ve never seen her in a sci fi but I think she’d kick butt. I cannot think of who I would have play Novell, although I want a mature character such as Sam Worthington (I am totally open to suggestions on that one) and I honestly picture someone like Kellan Lutz for the role of Jonahs. I keep looking at someone like Diane Kruger for the part of Dyna, but I came across a photo of Brookly Decker the other day and a light bulb went off.

4) Who was your favourite character to write?Ever? I would have to say Jonahs; he’s so complex and it’s fun to be inside his head because he is not really human, but he can feel more than he’s supposed to. This is his fatal flaw.

5) What made you come up with Propheticus as a name for the series? Everything that happened in my book as far as names, and place just popped into me head and felt right. I was trying to figure out the name for Propehticus and I couldn’t even think of anything. Then, literally like a whisper in my ear one night the word Propheticus came to me. I looked it up online the next morning and was pleasantly surprised to find that it had an ancient Latin meaning, Prophecy. Somehow it just worked.

6) Do you have a specific writing style? And who are some authors that you see as influences?Most of my childhood I studied a lot of poetry in classes and what not. I was exposed to poetry first and I loved Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe was my favorite and that was what I first started writing. I had a problem, especially with book one of breaking out of the poetic habit. But I still like to keep symbolism and that thickness of words that comes with poetry in my writing. As I got older I read a lot of Tolkien and Stephen King and the author that changed my life was Paulo Coelho.

7) What are some pre-writing activities that you have done (researches, outlines, etc)?Research online, I listen to music for inspiration. I have simply been grocery shopping, got in my car and something was on the radio that just struck me. I would run home as fast as I could, download the song, plug my earpiece in and write for however long the inspiration stayed. It would usually go on for a couple days listening to that one song. That’s how I like to write, when I’m feeling something. Also, If I feel like what I want to write needs a certain undertone of another story I have read before, I will go through and read that book or story again to decide how I want to write it; the tone I want to set and get inspirations for descriptions etc.

8) Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? And did your family see it in you from a younger age?

Before I was even able to write, I was telling stories. I got branded as the storyteller in my family; no one ever believed the stuff I told them because it was always way far fetched. As soon as I could write, I was doing it; in my journal on my desk at school, again just reciting it if I didn’t have a piece of paper handy. My family knew I was going to tell stories all my life, whether they ever thought I was going to write a book or not J

9) Do you have any future books that you're working on? If yes, can you give us a sneak peek?

I am working on a sci fi thriller set in high society New York. It is the story of Elaina Detrix, a socialite and trendsetter who goes under for an experiment that her love interest Dr. Brian Cole is working on. Brian has been experimenting on substituting DNA from animals to give humans similar capabilities; wings like a bird, fast speeds like a cat, climbing walls like a spider and the list goes on. Elaina begs Brian to experiment on her, thinking this will be an exciting new trend. But when the experiment works and they realize how dangerous it is, the try to keep it a secret. When they can’t and Elaina secret is revealed, everyone wants what’s she’s got. It is sort of an apocalyptic novel.

10) What was the hardest part of writing your books? And what was your favourite?

The hardest part was that I want all my ideas written now; I have so many of them and it is hard how constricting typing can be. I want a machine that just reads my mind and types them for me. The best part about writing is that you get to create whatever you want, a new world and new creatures, and escape into it whenever.

11) So aside from writing, what do you usually do? How do you unwind?I am a babysitter to my Nephew, which I love, I work out whenever I can; I think it helps with the creative process, I love doing things outdoors; camping, hiking, swimming. I am really into film and one day I hope to become a producer or director, so what I do to unwind is watch movies. I love to watch any kind of movie but mostly Crime and Courtroom, thriller or Sci-Fi. I love finding films that never made it to the theater and watching them. A really great one I will forever recommend to everyone is “Chronical”, one of the best movies ever made.

12) What are some of your favorite books?Hunger Games, The Alchemist, These Things Hidden, Everneath and a little indie Ebook titled Lady Languish.

13) How would you describe the Propheticus trilogy to someone who hasn't heard about it until then?

It is a sci fi fantasy thriller with romantic elements, set in an ancient universe. Four individuals run into each other by chance and discover they are part of an ancient prophecy to bring victory against the universes most gruesome creatures. Aniah, the main character, a naïve young woman, finds out that she is meant to be the savior of the universe, a burden she is unsure she can bare. Will she be able to stay alive long enough to become the savior that the universe needs her to be?

14) And finally, do you have any piece of advice for budding writers, especially when it comes to self-publishing?

Oh boy, do not expect to have it made within the first six months of publishing. There are so many tips and advice it is hard to include them all. I have a blog where I write tips about self-publishing and what I have learned http://www.propheticusthebook.blogspot.com/. But the biggest piece of advice I would give is to not pay a lot of money for advertising. The most profitable forms of advertising are the ones you spend nothing on, and you will need your cash. I love mentoring so if any authors want to contact me via e-mail please do propheticusthebook@gmail.com.

Fun Quick-fire Questions:

Tea or Coffee: Coffee *shivers *

Peter Pan or Jack And The Bean Stalk: That’s a tough one, but since I love to fly I’d have to say Peter Pan.

Books or e-books: Books for sure, there’s nothing like the feeling of a book in hand.

Twitter or Facebook: Facebook

Superpower to read minds or to be invisible: Invisible, I would hate to have to know peoples thoughts.

Early bird or Night owl: Night Owl for sure.

Thank you Emma!xoxo, Mariam

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Well, that was it for the interview and I can't believe how sweet and simple Emma Daley is! Thank you Emma for answering all my questions :) And I'm happy to say that I REALLY enjoyed reading the books, I highly recommend checking them out! ( To see my review of Book 1 click HERE )

Aniah and Novell's relationship has suffered some because of Aniah's discovery and the visitation of the SleepWalker last year. Aniah must learn to protect herself and fight against the dark creatures as she leaves her home behind and begins a dangerous journey, trying to discover her role in the Prophecy of the Dark Angeli. Sample of writing from book: I didn’t feel like the savior of the universe. I was afraid of tiny cliff sides and dead animals. But I didn’t have a choice; people depended on me-millions of people. My life was no longer my own. Just as the Mangitor de Sangue’s was not their own. I didn’t feel like the savior of the universe. I was afraid of tiny cliff sides and dead animals. But I didn’t have a choice; people depended on me-millions of people. My life was no longer my own. Just as the Mangitor de Sangue’s was not their own. My name is Aniah. I saw my fate last year in the eyes of a monster, otherwise known as a SleepWalker, a breed of the Mangitori de Sangue. I have yet to learn about this prophecy in which I am an omnipotent warrior sent to save this universe from the deadly clasps of the Mangitori de Sangue, an ancient army of blood lusting creatures. I must try to pull myself from this fearful prison of self pity and desperation that I have trapped myself in, realizing I could lose everyone I ever loved, and become the warrior that millions are counting on. I must learn to fight and spill blood; to run and to hide; and worst of all, to be prepared to have my world ripped to pieces.

In the second installment of the Propheticus trilogy, some action takes place in the story. Aniah left the safe life that she once had and set off on a journey on which her life and the life's of her beloved ones are menaced but it was out of her hands. By the end of the day, she was the savior on which the universe is depending on. This book was written from the point of views of Aniah, Novell, The Man with the White Hair and was once told featuring the Survivors and to be honest, I was really bored while reading those type of un-defined tellers chapters.

However, the book picks up about eight months later from where the first book, Propheticus ends. Where Aniah was all devastated and unhappy. Her relationship with Novell was disturbed and she is full of fear from what is to come next. On the contrary, Novell seemed to be a bit preoccupied as he was preparing for their journey to find the fourth person in the prophecy and was on the mission to prepare Aniah to fight for herself. And I think that there was some sort of an attachment to the main characters and to the world that we once went through from within the first book and that was a factor that tied me up through the beginning of the book, which had was slow-pacing in the first chapters.

I enjoyed all of the new/almost-new characters whom were introduced in the story, especially Jonahs, he has some dimensions to his characters. And Daley was able to handle it all well, with the new characters and the intense surprises and incidents, it all went smoothly together. But Aniah, I feel was getting a bit silly, like based on the book, I felt that she had a lot of childish actions to her. Another thing that annoyed me and didn't like at all, was that whenever Aniah did something like literally anything, other than walking, sleeping and eating and believe me she didn't do much, everybody would freeze and look at her in awestruck, I wanted to shout like get on with it already people! I didn't see how she was getting stronger, except for her weird thing. Aniah was a bit different here, I mean she was still Aniah but I rather hoped for her character to develop more or become more of a mature after embarking all these new stuff and journeys.

Again, I like Daley's imagination. There were some really creepy creatures with weird names, just weird living things overall and it was just out of the normal theme. Some intense moments happened which kept me craving for more but I just don't want to give anything away except that I'm excited for the route that Aniah's life is taking, totally unexpected. And I'm still not sure about how Aniah will end up being but all this, would definitely keep us, the readers entertained enough. However, there was this thing about this book, there was this Twilight-ish touch on it, which I absolutely didn't like. And now looking back at it, I can see that small tiny factors played a role in making the first book, Propheticus slightly better.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading the sequel to Propheticus and would highly recommend reading it, if you read the first book of course. For the fans of Twilight, but here it is not about vampires but about some eerie blood sucker creatures that can hunt you down through your dreams and pop into your real life. A thriller and a fantasy story, exquisitely written by Emma Daley. A page-turner and SUCH a cliff-hanger, in a brutal way. Now, I can't wait to read the third book.

Title: The Migliao

Author: Emma Daley

Series: Propheticus | The Migliao | The Dark Anglie

Published: 25th June 2011

Source: A copy was provided as a participant in the Prophteicus blog tour in exchange for an honest review.

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I read each and every comment and I really appreciate sharing your thoughts with me guys! So it always makes me happy to hear from you ;) I will try my best to reply and comment back on your own blog so expect me to visit you soon ;)

*PS: This is now an award free blog and although I really apperciate it and I thank you for considering me but fulfilling these types of posts turns out to be really hard and time consuming :( *

But thank you for stopping by and welcome to Book-A-Holic!xoxo, Mariam

NOTE: I haven't been commenting on other blogs lately because my laptop's charger is broke so until I get a new one I am using another computer but I guess there is something wrong with it because I can't leave comments on other blogs at all so sorry about that but I'll try and fix that asap. Thank you!